You pose a difficult question. Given that fancy sports bar/club that just opened up right next this location, I'd venture it could be worse. It could also be a Citibank. Actually, I'm talking myself firmly into the "it could be worse" camp. At least you can eat pancakes.

i hop isn't food.they don't even serve real butter.pancakes without butter?ugh!but, as rovingstorm says, the it could be worse mind-set is what i'm looking for.like it could be another bar, or even better, another chase bank.now that's what we really need, more chase banks.

VH McKenzie - you have a point.in the late 60's this stretch was where all the drug folks hung out, especially at the medicaid mill in the basement of the SRO at 209 e 14. and it was between the 9th and 13th precincts so the cops would push them from one side of the street to the other.sweet 14 (con edison's child) was formed and lots of money was spent to find solutions (that never occurred) to the problems that would be created if real help was given to that block (and eventually the east and west of it). and what it would mean to the stores whose leases would expire. etc. and when grants and low-interest loans were finally made available to stores for "fix ups" the landlords didn't renew their leases.so what we got was a binder bell (or whatever the architects name is) $10,000 drawing of the gateway to the east, small signs on the buildings of some stores with pictures of what was there, and new, painted green lamps and tree-pit covers.the 9th precinct was allowed to go to the north side of 14th street and the 13th precinct allowed to cross to the south side. i don't think that made much of a difference.not much has changed even since the medicaid mill and then the sro closed.

This block is such a missed opportunity. Many of the buildings have potentially wonderful original facades and the trees are spectacular. With so much going for it, I just don't understand why it remains so dumpy.

@michelle: hey if TGIF's can survive in Union Square, then so can IHOP. I guess we gotta understand that the huge population of transplants needs its comforts of home like anyone else.

Maybe, to keep things civil and avoid conflicts with the natives these businesses ought to form their own little "ethnic" enclave not unlike the Little Italy's, Chinatown, Koreatown's of the world. We can call it "Little White America" and it will feature all the familiar staples--Domino's, Papa John's, TGI Friday's, Outback steakhouse, IHOP, Olive Garden, 7-11 --of the old country.

PMO, i for one am not nostalgic for "the sex shops, hookers and junkies that used to line that stretch of 14th".i had too much of this in the 40 odd years i've lived here, having to watch which way to walk down a street in case somebody was shooting somebody else. fights over territory 24 hours a day. noise. the dealer's whistle.it's not a choice between bad neighbors (noisy bars vs. noisy crime). a low-middle income neighborhood is entitled to the same quiet, cleanliness and quality of life as a rich neighborhood.

it's sad and bad that the character, grit, and uniqueness of the ev/nys are being replaced by bland, suburban, chain-fied stores, such as ihop. once nyc becomes mall-ified, then what's the attraction for nyc, when nyc will be no different than houston, madison, ann arbor, etc.

as for those who are excited that there'll be a 24-hr pancake joint for the college kids, there used to be one -- around the clock, which is now closed. food may be mediocre and in par with ihop, but it definitely had character.

and there's always odessa, open 24 hrs. on fri-sat, and late 'til 2am the rest of the days.

As an Austinite with one of these dreadful abominations a mere mile from my house, I feel well-equipped to give you all coping advice. Are you ready? Here it is: don't go to it. If New York is truly as one-of-a-kind and perfect and filled with only intelligent, skinny people with the right taste in food and interior decor, the IHOP will be out of business in no time. If the IHOP stays open, well, maybe you might need to come to grips with the fact that New York has its share of lard-loving losers just like the rest of the country.

That said, I don't like them enough to want to see them on 14th Street.

The pertinent question to me is, why hasn't New York come up with a worthy pancake house of its own? Royal Canadian is gone; now there are coffee-shop pancakes and fancy-pants pancakes but no pancake-house pancakes. Someone should have beat IHOP to it.

it is not the ihop - it is the proliferation of bad fast food chain stores, drugstores and banks. a little diversity would be nice. mom and pop stores were unique and had a history. you don't want that to be all that is here, but there should be a balance. we are losing everything unique and getting cherry vanilla replacements. everyone is medium and everything is bland.different neighborhoods used to have interesting attractions, the flower area, the garment industry, the office furniture area, the photography area, etc. etc.now they all look the same, and from state to state, country to country there is little difference.

There is (was?) an ihop in the lower Bronx near the border of manhattan on broadway that I used to go to every so often when I worked up there. it was very much like a mcdonalds or white castle--kind of grimy and sticky, and surprisingly not cheap, but if you want a pancake with fake syrup, the choices are fewer and fewer.

Irish Eyes, I miss Pete's-A-Place (and especially Stuyvesant Deli) but there are 3 excellent pizzerias in a several block radius to Pete's: Muzzarella on A/14th, Vinny Vincenz on 1st/14th, and Motorino on 12th/1st. And that's just off the top of my head.

oh, and Artichoke of course but goopy green chip-dip on crust and throngs of NYU types is probably not your scene (mine either) ;)

FYI--You don't necessarily need to order Artichoke's namesake slice when placing an order at that establishment. I prefer their Margherita Slice to anything else on their menu. It is a bit salty, but any time you put mozz. cheese and tomato sauce together that is likely to be the case.

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